Office environments have undergone a pivotal transformation from a resource to a touchpoint for collaboration, brand, and culture. What should landlords consider prior to making capital improvements in a building’s public areas to support these needs?​

The work environment has undergone a pivotal transformation from providing resources like dedicated desks, phones, and computers, to today primarily function as a center for collaboration and a touchpoint for an organization’s brand and culture. Enabled by mobile technology, today’s offices are furnished to support varying styles of work – from quiet to social – and plenty of amenities aimed to attract and retain top talent. Interior spaces are also addressing the health, comfort, and well-being of occupants. Leading organizations are developing built environments that reflect their mission and values in order to engage both clients and employees.

​With so much change happening in the tenant space of an office building, the opportunities for innovation in a building’s common areas are not far behind. Today’s commercial tenants are evaluating building features, shared amenities, and public spaces, to see how these can augment or extend their own built environment. What should building owners and managers consider prior to making capital improvements to support these needs?

Starting With a StrategyLandlords who take a long-term value approach to ownership may want to make important and lasting improvements, possibly phasing them over time. Those owners looking to more quickly maximize the potential for resale might take a different approach. For both, the key is developing a strategy based on which financial decisions involved in renovating public spaces such as a building lobby will be made. A lobby itself doesn’t earn rent, though a proportionate share of the common areas is factored into the tenants’ leases. Since they are ultimately absorbing some of the cost, and especially as office rents continue to increase, tenants are expecting their building’s public spaces to be more useful and engaging.

A well-positioned building can attract and retain tenants in any economic cycle. In a downturn, amenities can be a key differentiator. During a boom, new buildings come online and boast the latest in integrated technology and amenities, which can influence owners of existing buildings to modernize to remain competitive. ​At 301 Howard Street in San Francisco, the building ownership undertook a wholesale renovation of the lobby and common areas despite a relatively low vacancy rate. Instead of a quick play to attract new tenants, this investment was intended to keep the building attractive to existing tenants in the long-term, especially technology companies who had started to populate the building. The newly revamped public areas would come online ahead of major lease expirations and make a tenant’s decisions to stay an easier one. The redevelopment efforts included relocating the building’s entry from a corner location to a proper Howard street address, which, along with the dramatic light-filled and restrained lobby interior, created an entirely new identity for 301 Howard. Other key components of this transformational effort were the relocation and optimization of adjacent retail spaces and a new streamlined glass façade. The project scope also included new amenity spaces - a visitor center, café and lounge spaces, locker rooms and a fitness center, all features high on any tenant’s wish list.

301 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA. Photo credit: David Wakely

Identity IssuesOne of the primary drivers to reposition a building is brand identity. Does the lobby’s image align with its perception in the market? Lobbies form the first impression of a building’s character, quality level, and even about how the landlord may provide and manage services in the office space.​In Chicago’s South Wacker Corridor, a number of office buildings built in the 1970s and 80s were facing competition from newer buildings and large historic properties being renovated not only downtown, but in the emerging West Loop area. In response, the building owners of 300 South Wacker sought to reposition their building by providing amenities relevant to a modern tenant clientele. The result is a hospitality-influenced lobby, a café, fitness center, bike storage, an outdoor terrace with retracting glass wall and views of the river. And a large tenant lounge, complete with a food truck that serves an ever-changing menu from a different pop-up vendor each day. The result is inviting and comfortable as well as exciting. Tenants are drawn to these amenities as an extension of their own space in the building, and frequently meet visitors over a coffee or a casual bite to eat.

A building’s address can also play a role in tenant attraction. A decade ago, Mission Street in San Francisco started to emerge as a business destination competing with the Financial District north of Market Street. Today, the bustling Mission corridor links the City’s waterfront to the tech center of South of Market and the street has been transformed into a fashionable address for innovative companies. It’s not surprising then, that an upcoming repositioning design for 50 Beale Street includes rebranding the property as 300 Mission Street. While a change of address may help attract prospective tenants, owners should also consider impacts to existing tenants who need to update business operations and marketing collateral.​Improving street presence and brand may mean relocating a building’s entrance entirely. For 50 California Street, a recent lobby renovation involved recapture of an existing point of entry on Sacramento Street into retail space. This move, along with new building signage, outdoor stone paving, and a new frameless glass façade, focuses circulation towards the primary entrance on California Street, orienting visitors coming from nearby public transit and emphasizing the building’s identity. In addition to adding retail spaces or new tenant amenities, clarifying a building’s points of entry can help reshape its image in relationship to the neighborhood.

50 California Street, San Francisco, CA. Photo credit: David Wakely

Lobby or Lounge? The answer is yes.When employees can work outside of the office, what draws them to certain spaces over others? A neighborhood café is a popular choice because it provides a variety of benefits in one location: the ability to do focused work, being socially connected, comfortable seating, and of course, custom-order beverages. Activating a building lobby with amenities like a café, can transform a merely transitional space into a go-to destination. Landlords often have to balance the needs of their retail and office tenants, and a socially active lobby can support both.​At 275 Battery Street in San Francisco, an underutilized retail space was recaptured to create a bustling café, open to the lobby and serving both tenants and visitors. The physical transition from retail to lobby space was kept entirely open and seating areas were extended into the lobby itself to blend the two environments. The result is a new destination space within the building. Tenants are encouraged to use of the café for meetings, interviews, and events, and many casual visitors stop for a coffee before or after a trip to a tenant’s office. Tenants in the building may now think twice before purchase that expensive Italian espresso machine for their office, since this service now exists as a building amenity.

275 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA. Photo credit: Sharon Risedorph

A Modern ReceptionTo make office reception areas more productive, these spaces increasingly function more like a concierge desk or hotel lobby with a variety of services offered. Advances in technology and changing approaches to security have also shifted the perception of a lobby’s main desk and the staff behind it. As electronic turnstiles, cameras, and destination-based elevators help control access, security desk personnel can redirect their focus towards tenants and visitors with questions or in need of assistance. The desks themselves are generally becoming smaller with the aid of technology. In lieu of a monument tenant directory, lobbies now employ electronic displays that can easily be updated or eliminating them altogether.​More landlords have also integrated video technology in lobbies and elevator cabs. In addition to video as a brand element, tenants can get updates on rideshare or bus arrivals as well as on traffic delays, news, or weather. Adding modern security features or touchpad directories, even destination-based elevator controls, can help position the property to remain competitive with its newer neighbors, especially in tech-savvy markets where tenants expect some of these features.

Creating Lasting ValueWhat should owners and operators know when applying today’s office design trends to a building’s common areas? Community spaces matter. While not every lobby might practically serve as a hub for tenants and visitors to share information and socialize, every public space in a building has the potential to become a memorable destination. A strong identity, clear circulation, modern technology, and a connection to the neighborhood context all create a sense of place. Efficient use of real estate means making spaces work in multiple ways and being more flexible. Adding meaningful amenities and services makes tenants feel supported, more at home, and can help reduce costs for a tenant’s own buildout. Building owners see a return on these investments when leasing rates remain high even in downturns, and when entire districts thrive as each building owner improves their part of the neighborhood.

As commercial real estate costs continue to climb in tech-focused urban markets, competition for the right space remains high and for talent it’s even higher. People and the built environment represent two of the largest expenses for most organizations, and they are connected at the hip. How a built space meets the needs of its users and how well it supports an organization’s culture are qualities of its design. With employee satisfaction increasingly linked to factors beyond salary and benefits, the office environment is becoming more critical in the HR equation. Simply put, meaningful workplaces help attract and retain quality employees. Finding the right mix of features, amenities, technology, and aesthetics can be daunting without a trusted design partner. Here are four key components designers consider when working with clients on their workspace strategy:Work Style ChoicesLong gone are universal solutions assigning workspace based on a user's job function or title. Employees today expect a more customized experience based on their preferred work styles. A salesperson’s work flow and privacy needs are clearly different than a software developer’s. Putting everyone in the same work setting (cubicles or even benching) hinders effectiveness by prioritizing space efficiency. Mobile technology allows employers to offer a choice of settings to support a variety of work styles. In Activity-Based Planning, users move among various environments to suit their current work mode - collaboration or heads-down, café or phone room. Generally, this has led to a re-allocation of real estate - less assigned "me space" and more "we space", with different generations of workers adapting at varying rates. One key factor often overlooked in this scenario is that the users also need to feel empowered to work this way. Supporting agile workplace policies at an HR, IT, and operational level and visible participation by a company's leaders are keys to making a choice-based workplace successful.

At workplaces for Argonaut and Quantcast, both in San Francisco, CA, mobile technology allows employers to offer a choice of settings to support a variety of work styles. (Photos: David Wakely, Jasper Sanidad) ​

Health and Well-beingSeeking to eliminate toxic materials, ensuring good air quality, and prioritizing access to daylight are sound design strategies, and the obvious values and benefits of "greener" buildings highlighted by rating systems like LEED have led many jurisdictions to adopt local sustainability ordinances as part of their permit process. More recently, the WELL Building Standard™ has gone a step further to focus specifically on human health and wellness, both physical and mental. Factors like ergonomics, acoustics, fitness, and nutrition, even the effects of color temperature in lighting, have impacts on wellness and are prioritized in the design of the built environment. Today's WELL accredited designers are using evidence-based medical research to address these factors and support human wellness in the workplace. The positive effects of designing with wellness as a priority are obvious from an HR standpoint, which impacts an organization's bottom line. Even for existing spaces, offering healthier food and drink options, exercise programs, quiet space, and addressing ergonomics with sit-stand desks are good first steps.

Offices for Aquent in Boston, MA and Medium in San Francisco, CA illustrate the positive effects of designing with wellness as a priority. (Photos: Garett Rowland, Darren Hull)

Integrated TechnologyBring your own device. Plug-and-play. Share your screen with others. Conference in the team from Europe. Save it to the Cloud. And do all of this while maintaining air tight security. Simple, right? The ever-increasing demands and complexities of technology don’t just extend to presentation or communication tools. How smart spaces and buildings can sense and even predict user behavior, and in turn create a more customized, healthy, and productive user experience is the new frontier of office design. Rooms that sense the number of occupants and adjust ventilation and temperature. Light fixtures that respond to available daylight and change color temperature based on circadian rhythms. Chairs that tell you it's time to stand for a while, and standing desks that tell you when it's time to sit. A recent focus of commercial furniture manufacturers has been the integration of sensors into furniture and architectural components to collect data about a user's presence, location, or movements, with the goal of allowing environments to adapt and reconfigure accordingly. Smart building technology optimizes an organization's real estate footprint by optimizing space utilization and reducing resource and energy use. Whether at a full building scale or a single desk, facilities operators are looking to big data (and to the designers that can interpret it) to help improve user experiences.

Workspace for Sequoia Consulting in San Mateo, CA and Next15 in San Francisco, CA demonstrate how smart spaces create a more customized, healthy, and productive user experience. (Photos: Anthony Lindsey)

Engagement and Culture​It's an over-used word to be sure, but a company's culture remains the most critical element influencing the design of effective and engaging work spaces. Employee retention is influenced by a shared mission, fair management practices, evolved HR policies, social connection, and of course the right tools and technologies for getting work done. Beyond these fundamentals of an organization's culture, the workplace is often cited as the next important factor in employee engagement. Built spaces are about creating a sense of place & belonging. Mobile technology has enabled remote work for a long time, but people generally still prefer to interact directly with colleagues – and in an environment where their organization's values and brand are reflected. One could argue that co-working spaces create a pseudo-version of this ‘tribal’ support system, but without the shared mission component. Successful organizations reflect and support their values through workspaces that encourage or discourage behaviors accordingly. A wall made of glass sends a message about transparency. A round table creates a less formal dynamic for a meeting. Every detail is carefully designed to convey certain values. To increase retention and productivity (there's that bottom line again) employers provide amenities that promote work-life integration and convenience – meals, laundry, dry cleaning, daycare, even on-site haircuts. Leveraged correctly, these office perks are seen as part of an enhanced work experience and a positive component of company culture. The designer’s role is to dive deep into what makes a client’s organization unique, and in response create a space infused with meaning.

Successful organizations like Appeagle in Jersey City, NJ and Quantcast in San Francisco reflect and support their values through the workspace. (Photos: Garrett Rowland, Jasper Sanidad)

Getting Your Workplace to Feel RightWith increased competition for talent and workspace, corporate leaders can’t afford any missteps on their Real Estate decisions. There is a direct relationship between a well-designed workplace and employee retention. As part of a larger strategy, workplace boosters like choice, wellness, productivity, and engagement are seamlessly integrated and work in concert to create meaningful experiences. Healthy, comfortable employees, focused on the company’s mission, supported by the right team and tools, in an optimally designed environment will ultimately perform at a higher level. In the most successful examples these workplace components are actually invisible to the user. Employees only know that somehow things just work, their workspace just "feels right." Of course, that response is completely by design.

​Sascha Wagner is the President & CEO of Huntsman Architectural Group, a design firm with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago focused on elevating the human experience.

In September, 2016, Huntsman AG launched the firm’s third office in downtown Chicago, with the goals of better supporting its national clients and building a regional presence in the Midwest. One significant advantage in the expansion effort was that Chicago team leaders - Senior Associate, Andrew Volckens and Associate, Karie Vagedes - both have deep roots in the Windy City. Within one short year, they have successfully elevated the firm's presence in the Chicago business community, landed several exciting project commissions, and are expanding their team. Andrew and Karie share their thoughts on the thrills and challenges of starting a new office and building a bright future for Huntsman Chicago.

Q: Andrew and Karie, it's been one year since you started the Chicago office. How has the journey been so far?It has been a wild ride but more than anything, it has been fun. The two of us had not worked together before but it didn’t take long for us to realize that we would get along just fine. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have made it a year. We learned early on that open communication and trust was going to be required to make it work. We also learned that making friendly jabs at each other to keep the mood light and the laughs a plenty is similarly important.

Q: Anything that has surprised you in the office start-up?Just how welcoming and friendly the community has been to us. Everyone we have reached out to have been willing to meet with us and link us up with a few other contacts they consider a good fit. We’ve had countless breakfast meetings, coffees, smoothie get-togethers, lunches, happy hours, and dinners in the last year to build up our network. We truly value the friendships we have made and we are forever grateful to our first clients taking a chance on us. We are hopeful that our relationships with them continue to grow as we expand here.

Q: Both of you originally started in our San Francisco office. What is the most important thing you’ve brought to Chicago from that experience?We have tried to bring the same culture and work ethic we both cherished from the San Francisco office to Chicago. We’re also leveraging our workplace expertise. In San Francisco, we were fortunate to work for clients such as Google, YouTube, and Quantcast and developing cutting-edge standards for technology-focused office spaces. Bringing this knowledge to Chicago has been very helpful when it comes to talking about workplace trends and the amenities that building owners and companies are building to attract and retain tenants and employees.

Q: What makes the Chicago market unique in terms of practicing Architecture and Design?Chicago is rooted in such a rich architectural history that people know the importance of good design. It’s also a forward-thinking market, where clients realize how new ideas about how people work can be a game changer for an organization’s success strategy.

Q: Because of your tenacious business development skills the office already has several larger projects underway and your plates are full! How has the addition of the office's first hire, designer, Macaria Isip, helped support each of your efforts in growing the office?Macaria is extremely self-motivated and she has the skillset to take a job from conceptual design through construction. She has been an incredible addition to the team. We also just welcomed a former Huntsman intern, Madison George to the Chicago crew. Building a team has taken some of the work load and pressure off the two of us and allowed us to spend more time working directly with our clients.

Q: This past June, Tarkett's showroom at the Merchandise Mart successfully debuted at NeoCon and was the firm’s first completed project in Chicago. What did you enjoy about working on such a highly-visible project and what has been the response to the space? Again, I think it comes back to relationships. The client and the GC were both wonderful to work with and it was a total team effort from start to finish. The award at the end was sharing a beer with the client the last day of Neocon on the grand stair while watching everyone that visited the showroom using the space exactly as we had envisioned it.

Q: The second big news item in Chicago in 2016 was the Cubs winning the World Series after 108 years. Being from Chicago, how were you both able to balance the demands of starting and operating a new office with focusing on the fall classic? I don’t think we were the only ones focusing on the Cubs. It seemed like 80% of the city basically shut down for the playoff run and eventually the World Series. It was a long wait, but well worth it!

​Q: What other exciting projects are currently in progress?We currently have a number of great projects on the boards, two of which really stand out for us. On the building owner side, we are working on a lobby and exterior renovation project with Golub at 300 S Wacker. As part of the building repositioning, we are designing a new tenant lounge and private riverfront club for the building tenants as well as a series of spec suites rolling out to attract new tenants.On the tenant side, we are working with Relativity on a 48,000 SF tenant improvement project at 231 S LaSalle. It’s nice to be able to leverage our expertise in working with fast-growing technology companies on this project. Our goal is to design a meaningful space for them that aligns their business drivers with their spatial needs. Q: What do each of you look forward to as Huntsman Chicago continues to grow and flourish?We think keeping perspective is going to be important. We want to build a similar environment and culture that Dan Huntsman started building in San Francisco 37 years ago. We think it’s more about growing with the right people than growing at an accelerated pace. That said, we’re already looking forward to our next hires.

AW: One reason had to do with the positive buzz on the street. I’d heard about Huntsman through colleagues in New York, who always spoke highly of the firm particularly about the high caliber of the people at the office. After meeting with Huntsman Principals - Sandra Tripp, Sascha Wagner, and Linda Parker, I found that everything I’d heard was true and that I could see myself working side by side with them. I was really drawn to Huntsman’s philosophy as it relates to clients and employees – one that is motivating, entrepreneurial and committed to success through collaboration. I also feel that working within a mid-sized firm allows me to experience and contribute to its growth.

Q:How has being an east coast native and living in NY inspired your design/work?

AW: NYC’s reputation for ‘I need it yesterday’ paired with the intense competition within the design field has always kept me en pointe, especially when it comes to interacting with clients, consultants, vendors, and contractors. Working within a professional service industry – albeit a highly creative one – means having to learn about and anticipating our clients’ needs. Expectations are high and it has shaped my work ethic accordingly.

Q: What is your definition of successful design?

AW: To me, successful design is revealed in two parts: first, when the client walks into the newly-completed space and says, “YES, this is what we were envisioning” and second, a few months down the road and they say that the space works for them and the employees are thrilled to be in the space.

For example, I had an international client who had a presence in New York and a small presence in Long Island. Their goal was to consolidate in NYC, but it became challenging to gain complete buy-in by the Long Island staff. To solve this, the client signed a lease at 2 Penn Plaza, directlyover Penn Station, where staff had immediate access to the office, making it an easy commute for everyone. The overall office design and build-out had an outdoorsy, park theme suggestive of The Highline. We planned an amenity space to include a large ‘market’ that emulated a town hall and had oversized TVs and bleacher seating for social gatherings and all-hands meetings. Raw materials like brick or industrial windows were introduced, along with plantings in the walls; like a city within their space. The space was so well-received that the workspace evolved to hot desking and hot lockers to accommodate the number of employees that opted to work in New York.

Q: What is the most valuable lesson you've learned during your career?

AW: Open communications that support managing expectations, whether it’s the client or your internal team. I like to think of good project management as balancing goals within the “longview” with any immediate milestones that hold priority today. That, and understanding and being receptive to the strengths of a given team. We’re all working together. It’s important to show up and dig in side by side.

Q: Any advice you can offer the junior and mid-level staff as they develop their design careers?

AW: Ownership and communication are key. Own what you do; it’s your name on it, whatever the project or task is. Always communicate - ask questions, even if you think you’re bothering someone, and keeping your team informed.

The New Aquent Headquarters

by Sandra Tripp, IIDA LEED AP and Bill Puetz, CID LEED AP

​In 1986, three Harvard undergraduates—John Chuang, Steve Kapner, and Mia Wenjen—started a desktop publishing business based out of John and Steve’s dorm room. That business grew into Aquent, a marketing, creative, and digital staffing agency with offices across the globe.

Eventually, all that growth meant Aquent’s headquarters in Boston were getting tight. We’d been planning and designing a number of regional offices in North America for the company, so they turned to us. They were spread out on four floors, which was hardly ideal. But they were reluctant to relocate to a new building, because their culture was so bound up in their existing space. We looked into options for refreshing the space. Eventually they decided not to renew their lease, forcing the issue.

So Aquent leased a single 30,000-square-foot floor in 501 Boylston Street, an Art Deco building originally constructed in 1940 and known for generations as the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company building. We held a visioning session with Aquent to identify goals to guide the relocation. We came up with six:

The new headquarters should give Aquent all the tools they needed to work with similar-minded people and have fun.

The current space was homogenous. The new headquarters should be tailored to individual work zones, providing lots of choice.

The new headquarters should reinforce Aquent’s values of sharing space and resources.

It should be modern, liberated from “stuff.”

The materials should blend the modern and the natural.

The space should be alive and energizing and make people happy every day.

​Our charge was to preserve the culture that existed in the old space, in terms of the way the space felt, while transforming the way they worked by enhancing collaboration and connection.

The headquarters we designed reflects the egalitarianism of the company by switching to 100 percent hoteling—there are no assigned desks here, not even for the executives. We did provide one-to-one desking—120 workstations for 120 people—with the idea that the hoteling concept would allow the space to comfortably accommodate a growing workforce.

Much of the building’s historic interior had been stripped in previous remodels. So we had to give the space a sense of character that would reflect the culture—not just for the people working here, but for local clients and for visiting workers from Aquent’s offices around the world.

​To organize the large floor plate, we created a variety of destinations for working, drawing on popular building forms, each with their own feel and personality: terrace, pergola, back porch, library, general store, hut, and start-up garage.

To welcome visitors from the start, the reception desk flows into the café, creating a big public space. The café has a 20-foot-long table—Aquent has one of these in each office. They call it the harvest table. At 900 square feet, the café is big, and can be zoned into multiple areas. It’s meant to be a sort of coffee shop, where people can work at the harvest table, at movable café tables, or in four-person booths. A large meeting room can be closed off with large wooden doors as needed.

We detailed the space using natural materials such as timber beams, lattice panels, and oversized wood sliding doors. For example, we used real exterior grade wooden shingles to clad the huts, which contain meeting rooms that can be reserved. Phone booths are drop-in spaces for one to two people. Whiteboards are everywhere—including tabletops. Because the headquarters is 100 percent open plan, acoustic clouds all over the work areas absorb sound, and white noise provides additional sound masking.

​For those times when people really need to concentrate, they can head to the library. Although it’s also open plan, cell phone use isn’t allowed, and all talking is to be kept to a minimum. It’s sort of like the “quiet car” on Amtrak. At the back of the library, movable bleacher seating can be reconfigured for all-hands meetings. In a tongue-in-cheek touch, we put film on the glass windows that looks like shelves of books.

The pergola meeting areas are accessed through a corridor with a wood slat ceiling designed to resemble a trellis. The glass walls of each room are covered with a film that looks like switchgrass.

The back porch is a series of semiprivate rooms where people can get away from their desk and either have an impromptu meeting or just work at their laptop in a sunny space.

​The garage came about because they wanted a place that felt completely different from all the other spaces, but that would still function as everyday workspace. The sliding garage doors enable it to be separated from the rest of the office as needed. The standing height desks inside have butcher block tops. Just like in a real garage, people can hang things on pegboards on the walls.

When we went on our initial walkthrough of the space, we were told there was a room we couldn’t go into, and that it wasn’t part of the leasable space. Of course, we went into it anyway. Turned out it had a stairway that the landlords had walled off in the middle for building code reasons. It was a stairway to nowhere.

We asked the landlords if we could have it, if we made it code compliant, because we’d like to use it for a little hidden room, and they said yes. So we added a few sprinklers and painted the risers multiple colors. At the top of the steps, we placed off-the-shelf lockers for people to keep their belongings—especially important for a place where people don’t have assigned desks.

Our clients tell us the space has completely changed how they interact, and they love it: people are talking to each other, and it’s served as a great recruiting tool. It was an unusual job for us—keeping the essence of the culture, while completely changing the way everyone worked.

​Before Photos Below

Sandy Tripp and Bill Puetz are principals at Huntsman Architectural Group. Since 2007, Bill has worked with Aquent overseeing the design of multiple regional offices in North America. Sandy's and Bill's clients include the law firms of Sheppard Mullin, Fenwick & West, and Squire Patton Boggs as well as Moody's, Vanbarton Group, and Autodesk. Both Sandy and Bill are advocates for culture driving workplace design.